


Fallen Snow

by Azryelle



Category: Hakuouki
Genre: Drabble, F/M, One Shot, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 10:33:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7529311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azryelle/pseuds/Azryelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of drabbles/oneshots focused on SaiChi from my Chizuru Yukimura roleplay blog.<br/>Various time placements from common route to post-game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Five Times Kissed - Saitou

The first time was in the early hours of the morning. The sun had barely risen over the horizon and the room is dim, save for the golden streaks breaking through the windows. Saitou is standing by the stove silently tending the pot of okayu, as she prepares another dish. She reaches overhead onto her toes to grab a small container of spice when she falters and stumbles forward. He promptly turns to catch her but gravity pulls her down, colliding into him and their lips meet for the first time. She gasps at warmth of his lips pressed against her own, widened bronze locking with cyan. It is fleeting and over in an instant, both of them backing away muttering swift apologies, but even as she averts her gaze from him, her flush continues to bloom and there is an undeniable tingle upon her lips. 

The second time she is sitting in an inn, tending to his wound. It’s a small gash on his arm which he had attempted to bandage himself, the ends of the bandage are clumsy and hastily tied. When she is done she packs her items to leave but he stops her, reaching into the folds of his dark kimono and places a small gift in her hand. It is a wooden comb, etched with a crane in flight, breaking through swirls of clouds. Her heart skips a beat at his token of appreciation, and she can’t help but smile. Without thought she gives him a peck on the cheek, clutching the ornament to her chest. It gave her hope that someday she will be able to return to a life of normalcy where she no longer has to dress as a boy. 

Their third kiss, their lips don’t even touch. She is standing in the snow with him, teaching him how to make snow bunnies. Chizuru hands him the small creature made of snow and he notices her pink nose and cold hands. He envelopes his warm hands around hers and it’s not until she looks up at him that she realizes how close they are standing. Inches apart their breaths coming in small puffs of mist in front of their faces, mingling for a moment before dissipating. She quickly turns her gaze downward and she hears a faint rustle of fabric, followed by a plush warmth that surrounds her neck, partially obscuring her face. “Arigatou gozaimasu.” her voice muffled by the cloth, and she closes her eyes taking in the scent of florals, soap and tea, her lips grazing against the snowy fabric. She cannot ignore warmth spreading to her chest despite the frigid air. 

The fourth time Chizuru’s lips meet Saitou they are staying at the Kaneko mansion, a stop on their journey to Aizu. Saitou working himself ragged without rest and it breaks her heart to see him pushing himself to the point of collapsing. “You have no reason to remain with is until the end.” His words brought her a hint of melancholy, but in that moment she realizes that even if she left she had no home to go to. “You have nowhere else to go? You are like me.” 

His confession stirred within her, they were both vagrants. She squeezes his hand as they lay side by side on their adjacent futons, holding his hand as he drifts off into sleep as he once held hers when she was stuck with fever. Chizuru turns to her side to catch a glimpse of his sleeping face and she gently presses her lips against the back of his hand. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere but by his side, he is her reason to remain. 

Their fifth kiss doesn’t happen until much later, after the fall of Aizu and the Shinsengumi, at the beginning of a new era. Chizuru had fallen into a new pace, caring for patients in the small village she lives in. There is a faint shuffle of feet and she turns, thinking it is a new patient. Bronze hues widen, overwhelming emotions pricking at their corners in small droplets, seeing Saitou standing in the doorway. She apprehensively walks towards him wondering if this was a dream and she stops short in front of him, delicate hands reaching tentatively towards his face. She gazes deeply into his oceanic hues searching, how long has it been since she last looked into them? A deep yearning courses within her as she wraps her arms around him, burying her face into his the fabric of his shirt, taking in that nostalgic scent of florals, soap and tea… Saitou’s scent. She feels his arms tightening around her and her resolves billows from the deep longing to be within these arms. She tilts her head upward to look at him and she smiles, “Okaeri, Hajime…” 

She presses her lips against his and he pulls her body closer deepening the embrace. Her heart races and swells, radiating a warmth that envelops her being. A swirl of emotions flutter inside of her, longing, relief, bliss… but they all point to the realization that they are both ‘home’ with each other. Home wasn’t four walls and a roof over her head, it is within Saitou’s arms. Where she intends to stay. Forever.


	2. Five Times Kissed - Saitou

The Shinsengumi had always come first for him, even before his own life. Chizuru saw that in how Saitou carried out his missions and tasks. Any order that was given to him by the Vice Commander he would see it through without question. So when he took the ochimizu, her heart felt like lead and her stomach turned with self-repugnance. The unfortunate duty that had befallen on him was to protect her. 

“—I will carry out that duty, even if the cost my success is my own humanity,” his words would continue to haunt her. She did this to him.

And even after he became a fury he thrusts himself back into work as if nothing has ever changed, but Chizuru saw how his eyes strained and the small droplets of perspiration that beaded on his forehead when he forced himself to work during the daytime. As long as his body didn’t give out he continued to work. Medicine would alleviate the pangs of bloodlust, but even that had its limits. His condition had progressed to the point in which it had stopped responding to the medicine. She recalled what Heisuke had once told her, that blood was the only way to satiate that hunger and while Saitou eventually took her blood she often wondered if this would be a permanent solution for him. 

His episodes of blood lust started becoming more frequent, and it seems he loses himself just a bit more every time. It started as once every few weeks, then weekly, but now it had become so prevalent that it has become daily, oftentimes twice a day. 

She watches him in silence as inky indigo pigment bleeds back into silvery white, his crimson irises lose their glow fading back to cyan. There is also that hint of pain she sees in his eyes every time he looks at her as if he’s tainting her with blood with each episode. 

“I thought we were going to Sendai?” she inquires as she continues to walk beside him, timing her steps to his.

“I have business in Yase first,” a curt response, his eyes not leaving the road ahead. 

They approach the gates of Yase by nightfall, but he stops at a small clearing just beyond the gates. “Anou… is everything alright Saitou-san?” brows furrowed with concern at the sudden halt in their travels when they were only meters away from their destination. 

He doubles over in pain, falling to his knees and she can almost hear him clench his teeth. Moon-silver steals the pigment from indigo, and when he looks at her again she can see his eyes glowing like burning embers. She rushes to his side, instinctively drawing her kodachi prepared to give him blood as she’s always has, when he grabs her hand with a vice like grip. “Iie…Chizuru!” she blinks in confusion realizing that is the first time he’s called her by her name. “…please… do me this honor…” his voice pained as he turns her blade towards his chest.

She inhales sharply, bronze hues widen in shock and panic. “W-What are you… Saitou… I’m… no … why?!” emotion begins to sting her eyes and she begins to search into his through blurred vision, grasping fully what he is asking her to do. 

“Y-You just need blood. We can fix this… like we always do,” she pleads with him, trembling hands slacken on the hilt of her blade beneath his firm grip. 

“I-I cannot do this to you anymore,” he answers flatly, and she hates him for it. How can he remain so calm when he’s asking her to do this?

“No! It’s MY choice. You’re not making me do anything,” I was the one that did this to you Saitou. She shakes her head, there’s no way she could ever. Didn’t he realize how much he means to her? 

“Please… while I still am myself… not a beast,” his words pierce her heart, aching with each word that fell from his lips. 

She knows exactly what he is alluding to. He’s been slipping more and more each time he turns and it’s taking longer for him to recover from his fury form. She chokes back a sob balling in her throat, her body begins to tremble at the stark realization. This was his plan all along. He was delivering her to Sen Hime, where he knew she would be safe. “But… how will you protect me if you aren’t around?” she knew it was a low blow to bring up his duty to protect her when it was this very duty that caused him to become a fury, but she was desperate for an alternative. 

He closes his eyes, a small sigh spilling from his lips, “Sumanai–” Suddenly he clenches his teeth, and recoils slightly, and she knows it’s the rasetsu clawing at his sanity to be released. “Please…” he echoes his earlier plea, his grip tightening around her trembling hands that held her blade. 

“S-Saitou… I can’t…” she sobs, but when she looks into his eyes they are hollow and unfeeling. “SAITOU!” she shouts, praying he will come back to his senses, and he blinks, life returning to his scarlet orbs. A ghost of a smile whispers over his face and before she could protest further firmly grabs her hands, burying the kodachi deep into his chest. “N-n-n-n-no… Saitou!” she cries, fumbling to hold his collapsing form, cradling it in her arms. 

Indigo bleeds into snowy white and scarlet fizzle into oceanic hues, the light returning to them. He reaches up a hand to cup her cheek. “Thank you Chizuru…” he breathes weakly. 

Her body quakes with uncontrollable sobs, holding onto the remaining warmth of his body. She holds his hand to her cheek before pressing her lips in a tender kiss into his palm. “Wait for me… I’ll make this up to you,” she holds his hand against her cheek as the light slowly fades from his eyes.


End file.
